Puck's story
by FelineWolf
Summary: Puck's story from his point of view in the play A Midsummer Night's Dream. A story I wrote for an assignment in class


Puck's story

Puck walked into a clearing in the forest a step behind and to the right of his King, the Lord Oberon. They slowed as they walked into the moonlight, coming to stop near the edge of a small cliff. Below them was a small group of fay surrounding a delicate airborne carriage being pulled by a pair of elegant humming-birds. In the carriage was the fairy queen Titania, Oberon's wife. Sitting beside her was a young Changeling boy. As the pair watched, Titania gave the boy a beautiful necklace, a fine gold chain with the symbol of the fairy court entwined with that of Titania's personal emblem hanging on it. The delighted child was obviously awed and was quick to put the chain and pendant on. Answering Puck's unspoken query, Oberon spoke up quietly, explaining what they were watching.

"I have wanted that boy to one of my pageants for some time now; the Seelie court is no place for a once-human child. The Mortals are too violent by nature for one of them to ever truly be content in such surroundings; the double edged blade that is characteristic of my own court is much more suitable. However my lady has always refused my request, it seems she has forgotten that whilst she may be Queen, I am King and she rules by my good will. Since she has refused to give him to me three times now, I intend to take him by force."

"My Lord, I am, as always, at your disposal. How may I be of service?"

"Some time ago whilst I was wondering through the woods I saw the godling Cupid, alone. As I watched he fired an arrow from his love-bow up into the air and I followed it as it fell. It hit a clump of perfectly white Lily-of-the-valley. These innocent flowers turned blood red from the love magic in the arrow and now, the sweet nectar from them, when applied to a person's eyelids as they sleep will make them fall in love with the next living being that they see."

The King turned abruptly to his servant and spoke in a low, commanding tone.

"Find me these flowers, Puck. Find them for me and bring some back here before the end of the hour."

Puck bowed in acquiescence.

"I shall wear the boots of forty leagues and will meet you here without fail, my King."

An hour later, Puck arrived back in the same clearing with a bunch of the small, red bell shaped flowers. Oberon met him there, speaking impatiently.

"Do you have them?"

"My Lord, I do." Puck bowed as he presented them, hiding a smile as they were snatched out of his hand immediately. Seemingly only just realising the abruptness of his actions, the King greeted, then thanked him distractedly. It was not uncommon for his Lord to overlook the niceties of court, especially in the comfort of the presence of his closest advisor. Puck watched him with carefully hidden amusement as Oberon inspected the blossoms minutely, waiting until his Liege was finished with his examination before talking again.

"May I inquire as to what my Lord plans to do?"

Oberon looked up again, satisfaction glinting in his eyes, glee and a touch of malice in his voice.

"There is a bower some small distance from here where my Lady likes to rest from time to time. She will be there this evening and as she sleeps I shall anoint her eyes with the sweet nectar of this plant. Whatever creature she next lays her eyes on shall become the object of her obsession and, while she is distracted, I shall take the Changeling Child away to the Unseelie court. Thus, I shall have what I want and the Seelie Queen will have been reminded about how unwise it is to cross me."

Puck bent his head low in admiration. When he spoke, approval of the plan was clear in his voice.

"My King, a truly admirable and inspired plan as always. I am honoured to serve a ruler such as you. May I aid you in any way?"

Oberon tilted his head in contemplation.

"I have no need of aid for my task. However, there is another way you can serve me. In these woods I observed a beautiful human maiden following a contemptuous young man. She loves him and begged his affection, but he declined to do so, claiming nothing but dislike for her and love for one of their fellows. Find this disdainful mortal and smear the essence of this flower over his eyes as he sleeps at such a time that the next thing he may spy should be the lady he scorned. You shall know him by the Athenian garbs he sports."

"As my lord wishes, so shall it be done." Puck once more prostrated himself respectfully before disappearing rapidly among the trees.

Having finally located some Mortals, Puck observed them to make sure they were indeed the ones of which his Lord had spoken of. The two youths were garbed in the clothing that the Athenians of the time favoured, which looked nothing like what the same people would have worn not so long ago_. _Indeed, the lady was wearing trousers, something that would have caused a scandal some scant decades previous.

Examining the pair more closely, Puck was shocked to note that the female had another life growing within her. After some thought, he realised that such a thing might explain why she was following a man who so clearly despised her. It also gave him a higher measure of disgust for the male who fled from his responsibilities and the consequences of his actions in such a way. The young woman was some distance away from the man, presumably because he would allow her no closer despite the dangers of the wood. She was a rather attractive specimen of the human race, Puck noted abstractly. It surprised him that the boy turned her down, when so many others would have leapt the chance to be with her. Still, it was not uncommon for him to not comprehend the minds of mortals, human boys amongst those he understood the least.

Human morals and whims had always eluded him. They were remarkably different to fay ones and even more difficult to learn properly since each different culture had different rules and there were so many of them, many of which changed with every new generation of humans. For the Fay, most of whom were so long-lived they could be considered immortal, it seemed useless to learn about the humans' culture when it was sure to change again within a relatively short period of time, especially since the fay no longer had close interactions with the mortals, unlike the time when they were worshipped as Gods by the different populations of Earth. He himself had never really tried to understand how the mortals thought, contenting himself with the knowledge of how they lived, which he deemed indispensable if he wanted to be able to play with them properly.

He did, however, have a deep familiarity with the workings of the fairy courts because of the amount of time he had lived in them. After his mother had died when he was still a child, he had been sent to live with one of the Queen's courtiers, a childhood friend of his mother's. While the fairy had been kind to him, she didn't know how to raise a child and didn't have the patience to learn. As a result, he had been left more or less to his own devices and he had spent the majority of his time in the shadows of the royal palace, observing the interactions between the fay and, after some time, playing tricks on them.

He lived in this manner for some time, becoming more adept at hiding, trickery and wiser to the interactions of the courts as well as being more and more overconfident about not getting caught. However, this period came to an end, as they are wont to when he was caught by the faery he had been trying out a new trick on. Luckily for him, this particular fay, part of Oberon's court and known as Fenton, had been watching his tricks for some time and instead of taking revenge, took him under his wing. Fenton had taught him a lot; about trickery, pranks and deceit as well as guiding him through the delicate interactions of the court.

Eventually, he gained the name of Puck, meaning devil, and Robin Goodfellow became an acknowledged part of Oberon's court. After that, he rose through the ranks until he became the King's jester. He also became one of the Kings friends and was one of his most trusted advisors, a responsibility he took very seriously.

Puck was startled out of his reminiscing when an adventurous squirrel mistook him for a tree and ran up his leg. Smiling at the animal, he offered it a nut. The squirrel chattered at him in thanks before running off again.

Shaking his head in an attempt to remove his contemplations, Puck turned back to the mortals lying on the ground sleeping in front of him. Deciding that they were indeed the two that his Lord had spoken of he moved closer to the man and raised the flower blossoms to his eyes.

He murmured a quiet spell as he touched the petals to the closed lids softly, smearing the nectar across them. As with most faery magic, the words he spoke were not particularly important, they simply had to convey his meaning. Most of the fay he knew incanted with little made up rhymes; he tended not to bother if there was no one else to hear him since the only reason for the poems was tradition. If there was another fay around, he tried to use the most scandalous limericks he could think of to shock them. The King found it amusing and when they were alone they often had competitions to see who could come up with the most outrageous ones. Puck smirked to himself as the human twitched and rolled over in his sleep, now guaranteed to fall in love with the first thing he saw as he opened his eyes.

Having finished his task, Puck rose and went to find Oberon. As he went through the forest he heard a rather strange sound coming from beside the faery Queen's bower. On a whim, he went to investigate. As he came into hearing distance, he listened closely, trying to understand the words.

"Speak, Pyramus. Thisbe, stand forth."

"Thisbe, the flowers of odious savours sweet, -"

"Odours, odours."

"– odours savours sweet:…"1

Puck stared in shock at the humans in front of him. It seemed that they were rehearsing a play, but he had never seen a group of people less suited to the art of theatre than the characters in front of him. They might be able to do a small comedy, but not a tragedy, as was the play of Pyramus and Thisbe.

He watched the group a while longer before deciding to interfere. He might not have done so if it wasn't for the human playing the part of Pyramus. Puck found such narcissism truly repulsive; he could not stand false braggarts. Creeping closer, he sent a wave of smoke through the clearing, obscuring the mortals' sight. With an unnecessarily theatrical wave of his hand, Puck turned the loud-mouth's head into that of an ass.

As the smoke cleared, the strange and revolting creature was revealed to the others. Almost as one, they screamed in fear. Several ran immediately, one staying behind to stutter to his friend.

"You… you are changed Bottom, transformed!" The would-be actor could not bring himself to say anything more and ran after his colleagues.

Leaving the newly turned ass for someone else to find, Puck ran after the fleeing mortals, chasing them from the woods. He laughed as he raced through the trees, his magic changing the sound to whatever it felt the humans would be most afraid of, the occasional glances they had of him seeming to be of creatures from their worst nightmares.

Puck slowed as he reached the edge of the wood, reveling the humans' terror. Finaly turning his back on them, he murmered the words of a poem to himself quietly.

"Tyger, Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night.

What immortal hand or eye,

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?"2

Satisfied that the humans were completely terrified of him and the forest, Puck made his way back to the King. He found him above the Queen's bower, keeping watch to find out what creature his Lady would become infatuated with. As Puck discreetly approached his side, he noticed the boastful actor he had given an ass' head wandering into the clearing. Oberon saw him to and wondered out loud what the thing could possibly be. Puck answered him just as softly:

"That, my Lord, is what happens to Mortals I come across who have false ideas of their own worth. Their personalities become their form as well."

Oberon responded with a quiet laugh.

"That is also, dearest Puck, one of the reasons I keep you close. A magnificent prank as always, trickster. But hush! My Queen is waking."

The pair watched as Titania stirred, disturbed by the loud singing of the actor. She turned towards him almost automatically, the nectar of cupid's lilies making her become infatuated with him instantly. They watched as the Lady and the ass performed the age old dance of courtship that all living beings knew of in a parody of the fairy tales the humans were obsessed with. Puck snickered at the thought, humans and fay had very different ideas about love and the so-called "fairy tales" had no relationship whatsoever with what actually happened in faery culture. One obvious example was the use of magic, which in human fairy tales was often relegated to the crutch of evil whilst to the fay, it was merely a fact of life.

Satisfied that his plan was working, the Unseelie Lord turned back to his servant and motioned him to follow him further away to where they could talk in peace.

"Well Puck, what of the mission I tasked you with?"

"All is in place my Lord; the maiden will not be ignored by her chosen any longer."

Just then two humans came into the clearing in front of them. They walked together, although it was clear they were arguing. The woman seemed to be asking about another man, thinking her companion had killed him whilst the man was refuting ever having done so, despite freely acknowledging that he would have welcomed the opportunity to do so.

As they walked past, Oberon turned to stare at Puck with an eyebrow raised, asking him to explain himself.

"That is the man who scorned she that loved him."

"That was the woman, but not that the man."

"Tell me, Puck, why is it that instead of two couples in love, there is now a situation with two women and two men that holds no hope of resolution? Were my instructions unclear?"

Puck had to restrain himself from showing his nervousness in face of the dangerous waters he was now swimming in. He was just lucky that the King held him in affection.

"My King, you told me I would know him by the Athenian garbs he donned. The man I found was clothed in such, and I found no other in the forest. I fulfilled your request to the best of my knowledge."

Oberon's eyebrow rose further, indicating that he was not impressed. Puck hurried on.

"Besides, is such a farce not amusing? The mortals are obviously completely bewildered by what is happening, they stumbled through the affairs of their hearts as though they were treacherous mountains with only a long, thin roughly-hewn road as their guide!"

Oberon's other eyebrow went to join the first, his mouth twitching as he hid a smile.

"Indeed, good Puck. However, as amusing as their little play may be, I want you to find all four mortals included in it and fix the broken quartet into the two pairs they are supposed to be in. That means Helena of Athens with Demetrius, her scathing youth and Hermia, also of Athens, with the young man who loves her, Lysander. Understood?"

Puck nodded enthusiastically, not moving.

"Now, Robin."

Puck jumped to attention before running off.

"Sire, yes Sire, right away Sire!"

The king shook his head fondly. Puck was one of his best friends and he loved him for that, always finding his tricks amusing, even when they were not particularly healthy for the people around them. And he used some of the most interesting imagery…

Puck ran through the forest, looking for the Athenians. When he found them, he led them one by one back to the clearing where the Unseelie Lord was waiting. Finishing his task, he returned to the King's side.

The pair watched the mortals stumbling through their twisted dance to fight for love, occasionally commenting quietly to one another. It was entertaining and they didn't feel the need to hurry the ending. When finally the men stormed off readying themselves to duel one another, Oberon turned back to Puck.

"Now. Fix this muddle while I attend to my own business, then meet me back at my Lady's bower."

Puck bowed in answer before fading into the shadows of the wood. He flitted through the trees, stopping when he came across one of the human males. Modulating his voice to resemble that of the mortal's rival, he taunted and goaded him into a small clearing before spelling him to sleep. He rapidly did the same to the other before heading off in search of the women.

When he found one wandering through the woods, he changed tactics and merely guided her path to bring her back to the clearing. The other was also easily dealt with. Once he had all four asleep on the ground in front of him, he pondered on the best course of action.

Deciding that sometimes the simplest way was best, he separated them into the appropriate pairs, refraining from mixing them around. He then turned them to one another so that when they woke, the first thing they would see would be the other of their pair.

Having made sure that the mortals were appropriately placed, he pulled the flowers from his pockets. He then went for the fail-safe route, and covered all of the humans' eyes with the nectar from the flower. He woke them up so as to be absolutely sure they were all in love with their other halves before sending them back to sleep again. After all, he thought, smirking to himself, overkill was underrated.

When that was done, he directed the wind to carry them to the edge of the forest so that they would be able to easily find their way back to Athens. Feeling the satisfaction of a job well done, even if it wasn't his favourite task, he went back the Queen's bower and his King.

Puck walked up next to Oberon, who was again watching his Queen. This time, the Lady wasn't asleep but sitting with the ass, the two of them listening to the fay singing for them.

"Pitiful, isn't it?" The King's voice was filled with contempt at the sight. "As much as I first rejoiced about my plan succeeding and retrieving the changeling child, I now resent such false love." He cheered up again suddenly. "But come! Now there is no need to continue this farce, we shall remove the spell and my Queen shall once again be where she belongs, with me."

The two sent a sleep spell with the wind so as to be able to approach Titania unimpeded. Oberon removed the love-spell from his Lady before waking her up again. She stirred and looked up at him, speaking with a sleep filled voice.

"Oberon? My love, I had such a strange dream… I believed myself to be enamoured of an ass!"

The King indicated the body next to her. "There lies your love."

Titania jumped up, startled. "Oh, how hateful I find his face now. Lord, how came such things to pass?3

Puck interrupted their conversation before it could become heated.

"My King, I hear the Blackbird's song. Soon the dawn will come."

Oberon shot him a discreet, grateful smile. He didn't want to have to deal with a woman's anger at that moment, or indeed any. After all, 'Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor Hell a fury like a woman scorned'4. Some Mortals were indeed worth listening to, especially regarding matters of the female sex. It appeared that species changed little of the opposite gender's intricacies.

"Come, my Queen, faeries and fay, let us leave this wood for another, to play with shadows of the moon. We have no place in the brightness of the day. Trickster, set the human to rights before you go."

Puck bowed as the Royal couple left the clearing. He turned to human-turned-ass and began the quick process of removing the spell. Once finished, he again directed the wind to take the Mortal close to the city.

Puck looked around the clearing, checking to see that the fay group had left no signs of their presence before leaving, fading rapidly into the shadows. He could only hope that the next day would be just as exciting as that one had been.

1 Speech taken from "A midsummer Night's Dream", by William Shakespeare, Dover thrift editions 1992, p.28

2 Extract from 'The Tyger' By William Blake, 1794

3 Paraphrased from "A midsummer Night's Dream", by William Shakespeare, Dover thrift editions 1992, p. 48

4 Quote from "The Mourning Bride" by William Congreve, 1697


End file.
